Reform Leader Gunther Plaut Dies at 99

This post first appeared on The Arty Semite blog at the Forward.

Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, Senior Scholar at Holy Blossom Temple, died February 8 in Toronto at the age of 99. Holy Blossom, a Reform Synagogue, is the oldest congregation in Canada’s largest city. Rabbi Plaut was the longtime senior rabbi there, from 1961 to 1977.

Plaut was born in Munster, Germany, the son of Jonas and Selma Plaut. After earning a law degree in 1935, he fled the Nazis and went to the United States, where he was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1939. After serving as a chaplain in the American military during World War II, Plaut took pulpits in Chicago and St. Paul before moving to Canada.

The late rabbi’s name is most familiar as the author of “The Torah: A Modern Commentary” the Chumash used widely by Reform congregations.

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Tags: Hebrew Union College, Holy Blossom Temple, Rabbi Jonathan V. Plaut, Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut, Reform Judaism, Toronto Jews

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